Me...my Howa 22/250 is quite accurate. The howa/vanguards (nearly twins) are good IMO. Savage good from what I hear, but I've yet to own one. Tikka, same things, althought I've got my reservations about them.

If you wipe the oil off when taken out of box, under barrel, scope mounts, etc. We have wounderful luck with the Savage, even the cheap package rifles.
Only one rifle out of 50 or more shot 3/4" at 100 yds and it had piller placement problems. Other rifles all shot 1/2" or better.
With very little tinkering most all brands of rifles shoot well.
I have all savage rifles for target and varmint shooting now, must be lucky on all of them. If they don't shoot one hole to one ragged hole at 100yds, then its me having a bad day.

The more time I spend in the company of rifle shooters in the UK the more I believe that custom rifles are more for show.

Most hunters in the UK will shoot up to 300yds max, occasionally you may get a few that will stretch the legs of the caliber and get out a bit further, but not many.

I have a Tikka T3 super Varmint that gives me .5" groups all day at 200yds and 1" at 300yds. With that kind of accuracy why would I want to pay anything up to £5k for a custom .243 rifle???

Yes it will look better for certain,
Yes it may give a very slightly better group,(But not guaranteed)
Yes you will have a rifle to your exact specifications.

But will it shoot better, Maybe.

I have a friend that paid £6k for a custom .243ai and we go out hunting together regularly. His rifle is an absolute beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but I can outshoot him with my factory .243win every day of the week.

I have tried to shoot his rifle and yes it gives 0.5-0.7" groups at 100yds for 5 shots, but my groups are way better.

He has tried changing powders, bullets, seating and primers and it just will not shoot better.

Unless your shooting at extreme long in range in competitions custom rifles are really not an absolute essential, they are nice to have, but not essential.

100% AGREEMENT with what rscott5208 had to say on the subject. Sad to say with box rifles it is all about luck, end of story, reguardless of manufacturer.

I agree to some extent, but anymore with increased machining quality in mass produced gun manufacturing the luck factor has improved greatly.

I'd say that if I took a sample of 15 factory guns that I have shot or worked on, only one or two couldn't easily be made to shoot 3/4" at 100 yards after a trigger job and load development. The other one or two usually got there with bedding.

Please don't get me too wrong. Box rifles give the highest return in The amount received for money paid, probably even for any product of any kind. A good rebarrel can easily cost more than a new T-3. Savage generally is a good shooter right out of the box. Lots of semi-customs are built on box rifle platforms, a testament to their overall worthiness. If you like your box rifle now, send it to a custom gunsmith you will not be dissapointed. I think that it is a bit strange that so many folks will spend large amounts of money on a scope and put it on a rifle that cost a pocket full of change. There are an awful lot of folks that have a couple of good shooting boxers sitting alongside their customs. Overall the difference is night and day.